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 A
reproduction of a 17th century coastal trader, the ADVENTURE
was a cargo vessel that would carry supplies, provisions,
commodities and livestock between New Amsterdam (present New
York) and Barbados in the West Indies.
The Adventure was designed by renowned 20th century
shipwright William Avery Baker in 1969 and set underway in
March 1970 to celebrate the Tri-centennial at Charles Towne
Landing State Historic Site in April of 1970.
The Adventure left its dock on July 26 for its biannual
haul out for maintenance. This will occur twice per year,
every year, to ensure the longevity and sustainability of
the wooden vessel in this warm water climate.
The Adventure is back and will re-open to the public
Tuesday August 4 at 10AM. The maintenance haul out went very
well. The hull and keel are in great shape! The rudder and
prop had minor barnacle build up which was taken care of,
and minor damage to the rudder from the original trip down
(the prop “pulled” paint off the rudder). A copper
plate was installed to prevent this in the future. The hull
below the water line was scraped and painted. The deck and
top rail were scraped and painted and, according to the contractor,
we are good for another year. We finished the re-rigging and
stair re-install today and are ready to open. The ship has
been turned and now faces the opposite direction for proper
“tanning”.
Boaters cruising the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in mid-October
2008 caught a glimpse of something rarely seen for centuries
– a 17th-century sailing ship! The Adventure,
a replica of the type of trading ketch that would have plied
coastal waters during the colonial period, was making its
way down from Maine to its permanent home at Charles Towne
Landing State Historic Site in Charleston, South Carolina.
Located on a secluded, marsh-fringed peninsula off the  Ashley
River, Charles Towne Landing preserves and interprets the
site where English colonists established the first permanent
European settlement in the Carolinas in 1670. The State of
South Carolina commissioned Rockport Marine, an internationally
renowned boatyard in Rockport, Maine, to construct the Adventure.
This new vessel replaced its predecessor of the same name,
which succumbed to the elements after being docked in Old
Towne Creek (the tidal watercourse that borders Charles Towne
Landing) for more than thirty years. No stranger to historic
shipbuilding, Rockport Marine has several authentic replicas
on its résumé, including the Godspeed, a reproduction
of one of the boats that brought the Jamestown colonists to
Virginia in 1607.
Designed by naval architect William Avery Baker, the original
Adventure was completed in 1970, the year that Charles
Towne Landing opened to the public as part of South Carolina’s
tricentennial celebration. Following Baker’s original
blueprints (housed in MIT’s Hart Nautical Collection),
Rockport Marine completed the new ketch – made of oak,
cedar, and pine – in only nine months and launched it
in mid-September of this year. The second Adventure
measures 73 feet from bowsprit to stern, with a 50-foot deck,
and weighs in at 50 tons. Consisting of two masts (main and
mizzen) and five sails, the ship is 53 feet tall from the
hull to the top of the main mast. Should the wind prove fickle,
the Adventure is also equipped with a 180-horsepower
Volvo diesel engine.
To use a modern comparison, ketches like the Adventure
were the mid-sized delivery trucks of their day. With crews
of between six and eight sailors, they served as the workhorses
of Carolina’s early economy, transporting goods to and
from England’s other New World possessions, especially
the West Indian sugar island of Barbados.
Considered the “seed colony”, or cultural hearth,
of Carolina, Barbados played a crucial role in the founding
of Charles Towne. One of the original Lords Proprietors, the
eight English aristocrats upon whom King Charles II conferred
the Carolina Charter in 1663, was a wealthy Barbadian planter
named Sir John Colleton. At the time of Charles Towne’s
establishment, Barbados was the wealthiest English colony
in the Americas, thanks to the wildly lucrative sugar industry.
Hoping to turn a profit on their colonial enterprise, the
Lords Proprietors looked to Barbados, with its slave-based
plantation system devoted to the cultivation of a single cash
crop, as an economic model for Carolina. They actively recruited
Barbadians, placing a premium on their experience, and employed
Barbadian sea captains to explore the Carolina coastline to
find a suitable place for a settlement. Barbadian immigrants
would constitute a significant portion of the colony’s
population in the early years. Their leaders would form a
powerful faction that would hold sway over South Carolina’s
political affairs for decades. Using ketches like the Adventure,
Barbadian and Carolinian merchants helped strengthen the ties
between the two colonies, bringing sugar, rum, and manufactured
goods to the mainland and taking badly needed timber products
and foodstuffs back to a deforested island covered in seas
of sugarcane.
The Adventure at Charles Towne Landing serves as
a floating classroom, highlighting the importance of the Carolina-Caribbean
connection and maritime trade. Visitors can board the ketch
moored in Old Towne Creek, and learn about the rigors of a
sailor’s life, experience the cramped quarters below
deck, and see some the tools used for navigation.
To enhance the visitor’s experience at Charles Towne
Landing, the South Carolina State Park Service has redesigned
the wharf area adjacent to the Adventure. It features
a new floating dock, a full-scale skeleton of a trading ketch
(which serves as the centerpiece of a shipbuilding exhibit),
and an interactive rigging display that will allow visitors
to try their hand at hoisting the sails.
The return of the Adventure marked the culmination
of a multi-year effort to redevelop Charles Towne Landing.
Having won a number of preservation awards, the revamped historic
site boasts a new visitor center and museum, which contains
twelve rooms of hands-on, multimedia exhibits. Other attractions
include reconstructions of Charles Towne’s original
fortifications (complete with six, working replica cannons),
the Common House (a representation of a 17th-century communal
dwelling), an experimental crop garden, and a natural habitat
zoo that contains animals found in the Carolinas at the time
of colonization.
For updates on the Adventure or for more information
about program offerings and upcoming events at Charles Towne
Landing State Historic Site, please visit the park’s
website at: www.charlestownelanding.travel.
Those interested in Rockport Marine may find them online at:
www.rockportmarine.com.
Written by John Hiatt, Interpretive Ranger, Charles Towne
Landing SHS
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